Turkish Stream on schedule as it nears completion

Ankara, May 13 - Neftegaz.RU. The construction of the TurkStream project's gas receiving terminal in Kıyıköy, the end point of the offshore pipeline in Turkey, has passed the 70 % threshold, a penultimate step that marks the nearing of completion of the whole project.

According to Aslı Esen, the project's spokeswoman, the physical construction of the Kıyıköy receiving terminal, located approximately 100 km west of Istanbul, is going smoothly and the whole project will be finalized by the end of the year in line with the time schedule.

"We are totally confident that the pipeline will be commissioned by the end of 2019, as foreseen in our project calendar," she told Anadolu Agency in Berlin. A series of tests has already started for safety and integrity of the whole natural gas pipeline system before pipelines start gas transmission by the end of 2019.

"The landfall facility in Anapa, a port town on the Russian coast of the Black Sea, has been completed successfully and is on standby," she said. The above water tie-in (AWTI) procedures a process of welding the parts of pipelines already laid on the seabed, after being lifted onto a special ship is also complete, the spokeswoman said.

AWTI has connected the landfall facility in Russia and the receiving terminal in Turkey end to end along with the offshore section, marking another crucial milestone in the project, Esen said.

The project is the biggest-diameter offshore gas pipeline in the world laid at such depths. The world's largest construction vessel, the Allseas-owned Pioneering Spirit, completed the deep-sea pipe lying.

On the occasion of completing the sea part of the project, a ceremony in Istanbul was held in mid-November with the participation of Recep Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin. The Russian president had previously said that the TurkStream gas pipeline is set to become fully operational by the end of 2019.